On Course with Christ

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Approximately 55 A.D. Epaphras led a church in Philemon’s home to whom Paul the Apostle penned the epistle we call the book of Colossians. No other book of the bible displays Christ more prominently or more fully in His universal Lordship as this book. A background study of the culture of the time and region reveal that false teachers had undercut the major doctrines of Christianity which are the deity, absolute Lordship and sufficiency of Christ. Colossians rights the ship that is beginning to veer away from the headings first given.

As I learned years ago when I served in active duty with the U.S. Navy, you only need to be one degree off course to miss your intended destination by a thousand miles. So it is in our Christian lives that we need to continually revisit the teachings of the bible in order to auto-adjust our course in life lest we too end up grounded on undesirable shores.

In Colossians 1:15 Paul speaks of Christ when he writes; “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” (Bold emphasis by me)

My earlier personal life was not guided by the writings or principles of the bible or of Christ because I was never introduced to Him or His book, the bible. As a result, my life quite clearly and frequently ended up shipwrecked on foreign shores. But when in the fullness of time Christ was made known to me and I accepted His rulership over my life, I began to question some of the things I had been taught and found them to be at the least, misleading and at the worst, downright lies.

Chapter 2 verse 8 gives the warning, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him…”

My life was clearly many degrees off course and my compass needed to be adjusted to align with His settings and not the worlds.

The course correction that every life needs is that the word of God, the bible, is the ultimate and totally accurate guide for the human life if we desire to have a life pleasing to God and in the end arrive in heaven as our final, eternal destination.